There are a number of prior U.S. patents that disclose nut-cracking apparatus including U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,588,328, 6,584,890, 6,270,824, 6,205,915, 6,182,562, 5,623,867, 4,441,414, 4,418,617, 4,332,827. Each of the aforementioned patents discloses an endless feed conveyor that delivers nuts from a hopper or bin to a rotating turret. The rotating turret includes nut-cracking units that engage the nuts to be cracked at a pickup point to remove the nuts from the endless conveyor. The feed conveyor generally includes a feed chain disposed about a plurality of sprockets. A plurality of nut-carrying, or nut-transporting units on the feed chain deliver the nuts to be cracked from the hopper to the pickup point. Methods and apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned patents include pneumatic systems associated with the nut-cracking units. The nut-cracking units crack the nuts, and in many of the devices loose shell fragments are drawn off by a vacuum line and the cracked nut is delivered to a separate discharge chute. Although there are a number of prior art nut-cracking apparatus, there is still a need for improved methods and apparatus for high production nut-cracking. Improved apparatus as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/718,378, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/025,445, both assigned to the assignee of the current invention, and incorporated herein by reference. There is, however, a continuing need for nut-cracking apparatus that are compact, and effectively and efficiently crack nuts at high production rates with less wear on the apparatus.